Multi-player Madness: Team Fortress 2

When it comes to the most exciting games of 2007, Team Fortress 2 should be near the top of the list. This online multi-player first person shooter follows along the same vein as other hits on Steam, like Day of Defeat and Counter Strike, but, like the others, tweaks Valve’s Source engine to offer a unique gaming experience.

Team Fortress 2 is essentially a revision of the standard multi-player FPS genre that we have been seeing for years. Rather than being theme-based, like Day of Defeat, or weapons-based, like Counter Strike, TF2 revolves around the characters. Other online FPS games have given the choice between characters before, but rather than just having a different weapon, Team Fortress takes this concept a step further. Different characters have varying levels of hit points, move at different speeds, and have primary, secondary, and even tertiary weapons that vary widely from one another. The end result of this is that the heroics of one player can rarely have a huge impact on the outcome of the battle–team work is necessary in order to take advantage of each character’s strengths while offsetting their weaknesses.

There are nine characters to choose from, each of which will appeal to a different type of player so TF2 has a very wide appeal. The three offensive classes are the Scout, who is extremely quick, the Soldier, who is the game’s most well-rounded class, and the Pyro, who wields a flamethrower. The defensive classes are the Engineer, who can build formidable sentry robots, the mini-gun wielding Heavy, and the grenade-launching Demoman. The three support classes are the Medic, Sniper, and Spy.

The support characters, specifically the Medic and Spy, are the most unconventional and also the most interesting. The addition of a medic (as well as healing kits scattered around the levels) greatly changes the gameplay dynamic and makes powerful, slow-moving characters like the Heavy much more formidable. The Spy is able to cloak himself as an enemy player (any class he wants) and sneak into enemy territory where he can one-hit kill players with a backstab or destroy the opposing team’s structures (recharge stations, teleporters, and sentries).

There are currently six stages which are well designed, but revolve around familiar missions, like capture the flag. These simple goals stay interesting because of the team work required to accomplish them as well as how each team is given a chance to play on both sides of a mission before moving on. More stages should be coming in the future, hopefully in a time frame that matches the typically short attention span of gamers during the holiday season.

Despite the cartoon-like appearance of TF2’s characters and levels, the game is quite good looking. It uses the dynamic lighting that we saw in Valve’s previous round of release as well as excellent sound and fast load times for a great gaming experience. There are a number of small gameplay tweaks which fans will instantly appreciate, like persistent statistics, critical hits, a zoom-in of the player who killed you, multiple spawn spots, and health/ammo reloading stations. These all add up to gameplay that is reminiscent of previous games in the genre, but that has taken into consideration the faults with the design of older games.

Team Fortress 2 beta access was included with the purchase of Valve’s Orange Box so a number of players will get a head-start on it. The beta issues include some unexplained lag from time to time and a minor snag that happens when choosing the server you want to play on, but overall it is extremely playable. The game could definitely benefit from a few extra maps, but the characters are balanced and Valve seems to have done a great job of using its experience with titles like Day of Defeat to properly tweak this game.

There is very little to complain about with Team Fortress 2 and if you like the genre, it’s hard not to enjoy the game. It is possible that some people will enjoy the more realistic gameplay of Counter Strike or Day of Defeat, where characters are more or less the same and simply have different weapons. As multi-player online FPS games go, even considering that Halo 3 is out, Team Fortress 2 is a must-try.

Speak Your Mind

i haven’t played tf2 yet but i have played the free fortress forever which was made not by valve, but by the players. the game is super fast paced and has a very realistic look to it compared to tf2. ill let you decide

This looks like allot of fun. My web access is limited at work; can anyone tell me if this is still planned for PC and XBOX 360? I heard rumors awhile back of cross-platform multiplayer but I havenâ€™t been keeping tabs on it since.

awesomeo

I’ve been playing TF games since it was a mod for Quake. TF2 is a spectacular game but something is lost with it that TFC and the original TF had. It’s not as fast paced as past incarnations and they crippled rocket jumping and plain removed other skills like conc jumping. Moving around feels much more sluggish than it should also.

I’m happy that Valve finally released this game, but it seems rushed in several areas of gameplay. I’m a bit disappointed with some of the changes Valve made to this game and considering that they had many years to work on it. Still, it’s much better than their original concept for TF2.